The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (Manga), Vol. 3

異世界の沙汰は社畜次第 / Isekai no sata wa shachiku shidai - manga #3

by Kazuki Irodori (Artist), Wakatsu Yatsuki (Original Story), Kikka Ohashi (Character Design)

Although summoned to a fantasy world, with a new title and a stunning knight captain by his side, Kondou’s life is on the up and up! Or so it seems from the outside. But three meals a day, rest breaks, no overtime...it irks Kondou to no end! But when danger looms and Kondou realizes he’s not in Japan anymore, can Aresh break through his bitter shell and show him there’s more to life than just work?! 

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Romance, LGBT, Queer, Yaoi, Comics

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2022

Reviews

[Nuri X]

This is exactly the flavor of gay and stupid that I love.

Kondou: *works out that Aresh is not having sex with him for purely altruistic reasons*
also Kondou: for professional reasons, I will now be participating when we have medically necessary sex. Is this sending mixed messages? Who knows, I have budgets to do.

[Ben Howard]

Aresh has got it so bad for Kondou. It's so cute!

[Rosa]

The translation is superb. Can't wait to see where the story is heading.

[rory (jess' version)]

I'M LEFT WITH A CLIFFHANGER ONCE AGAIN funny how the supposed extra is doing something much more relevant than the holy maiden. i just want to see kondou to rest his overworked ass istg

[Chantaal]

I LOVE THIS SERIES. I love Kondou and Aresh’s relationship even though they’re both oblivious DUMMIES.

[Chelsea]

I felt confused many times while reading this, and there wasn’t enough sex healing if I’m being honest 😂

[•:*´¨binx ¨`*:•]

I really like the plot of this series. I’m actually really invested in the story and I wasn’t even mad that the relationship didn’t really progress that much in this volume!

[Kate♡]

3.5/5stars

still very fun but idk how this plot is really making sense lol like why is our mc involved with all of this

[Catharina]

The amount of Alesh's clinginess is unmeasurable.

[Alex]

Here I am, writing a review for a manga adaptation of a light novel, a review that I’ve put way more thought into than the genre can probably justify. It’s called a light novel, Alex. The clue is in the name. But I’m getting married in a couple days and my brain copes with stressful situations by hyper-fixating on trivial subjects. QED, I’m on Goodreads writing an unnecessarily detailed review with an unnecessarily detailed explanatory introduction, instead of you know MY MARRIAGE VOWS [laughing/crying emoji].

Cards on the table, I haven’t read a lot of manga. Because I don’t really enjoy it. And I find it confusing. I can’t tell if it’s a cultural disconnect, and I think that may be a part of it, but obviously there are plenty of non-Japanese people who enjoy manga. But I find most of it completely bewildering. And then I feel mildly guilty for feeling like it was written by extraterrestrials, because that seems uncomfortably xenophobic. But as with most things I don’t understand, I can’t help ruminating on why I don’t understand it or like it, instead of shrugging and moving on like a less obsessive person would do.

This volume of the series is, unfortunately, a good example of characters acting in ways that are nonsensical to me. Volume 1 & 2 were silly and enjoyable, but all of a sudden in vol. 3 Aresh is doing all this unjustified yelling and weird overprotective stuff that was too much. I mean, Kondou was ambushed and attacked by a group of disgruntled knights at the beginning of this volume and left for dead, so you’d think the author could have used that angle if they wanted to give Aresh reason to be (even more) protective. But instead he’s freaking out over Kondou styling his hair differently than usual for the ball or whatever (…and bro, I’m here to tell you it didn’t even look that different). And as a character trait, I don’t find “yelling at someone who’s been physically assaulted recently over their hairstyle” endearing.

Another part of the me-not-enjoying-manga thing is the ratio of UST to whatever the opposite of UST is. Sexual catharsis? So many mangas seem to treat the UST as the point of the narrative and I just don’t enjoy that. There’s got to be a measured build up, probably with some spikes and dips along the way, but ultimately with a payoff that makes the tension feel earned. Without that, I get bored and frustrated and the whole things feels pointless.

What’s intrinsically baked into this plot structure is the “they have to have sex because magic” trope. Which, to my mind, exists to showcase strangers having to negotiate physical and emotional intimacy in a way that isn’t possible in reality because it would be rape-y. It’s like the fake-dating trope to the power of 1000. The entire point of stories like this is that two characters are forced to have Feelings with a capital F together, but these two barely discuss anything at all ever. They each individually speculate about and obsess over what the other’s motivation is, but don’t ask the simple questions that they have ample opportunity to ask each other. And I would appreciate them talking to each other because I don’t actually know anything about either of them other than Kondou is a workaholic and Aresh is intimidating. Imagine. Two characters having a conversation that establishes their history, state-of-mind, goals, insecurities, likes, dislikes, regrets, sexual orientation, past relationships, strengths, short-comings, literally anything about them, for both the audience and the other characters. So that they can establish, I don’t know, a relationship or something. That’s a thing that romance stories typically have. But no, I still don’t even know if either of them actually enjoys the sex they’ve had on multiple occasions. Which is a problem. I can deduce that we’re supposed to assume they do enjoy it, but I’m not reading this fluffy fantasy BL manga for the opportunity to make cognitive leaps, okay. So far this has been a cycle of interpersonal conflict, tension, out-of-the-blue sex, and fruitless speculation, which was fun at first but is steadily wearing out it’s welcome.

Maybe all the whining I’m doing stems from the fact that, in general, I appreciate explicitness in love scenes over the “tasteful” pan-away, behind-closed-doors approach. In a romance, I’m here to get to know the characters and enjoy watching their relationship unfold. And sex generally tells you a lot about a character or a relationship. To my mind, it’s a very important part of that whole sïtuàtiōn and unless the author handles the story just right, it can feel jarring when it’s completely absent. And when about 50% of the interactions between the characters involve sex that isn’t depicted and then is never discussed between them, I’m nonplussed by what we’re meant to be doing here.

Also, the author chose to introduce a bunch of new characters and world-building in this volume which were not as well integrated as in the previous two. But I do like the art, which sounds condescending after I just complained all over the book, but I actually do. The style is clean and incisive and the expressiveness of the illustration works for the angsty brooding scenes, the over-the-top melodramatic scenes, and everything in between.

Has this entire review been a pointless attempt to parse my negative reaction to a highly successful form of entertainment that is ultimately not for me and is doing just fine without people like me “getting” it?

….Who can say.

[Anna]

I am here for Aresh being the grumpiest caretaker as his 'charge' refuses to stop doing overtime paperwork or eat properly, or do the WHOLE HOUR mandated break

oh and other stuff is happening. the teen girl Holy Maiden is havin her own shoujo isekai over there, there's a grand party, some new names added to the cast and an expedition to our first purification!

[chromAyshan]

Je vais devoir attendre pour lire la suite 😩 Trop hâte de les voir plus interagir cependant genre qu'ils deviennent amis, confidents etc

[Rayne]

ordziv my goat

[Yue4405]

Es terminar un tomo y necesitar el siguiente 🫣

[Bine]

Ich liebe die Charaktere immer noch, nur war dieser Band etwas zäher für mich. Trotzdem freue ich mich darauf, weiterzulesen.

[Dani]

While I do continue to love both Seiichiro and Aresh I felt like this book had too many moving parts and in doing so never really got to focus on any one moment for long enough.

The first two volumes tended to be a bit slower but I guess this was the point where they figured they had to pick up the pace of the plot because boy did things go fast.

It definitely wasn't a deal breaker but I guess to me it just felt way too rushed. I am looking forward to the next volume and I also did manage to snag a copy of the light novel so I'll hopefully be reading that soon as well!

I did enjoy the bonus chapter though! It was a nice break from the drama of the rest of the book.

[Michelle Easton]

Aresh and Kondou are so cute together. You can see the feelings blooming as their time together increases. I hope the idea to deal with the miasma works. These two deserve to have just a normal relationship and break from the madness.

[Ana Karenina]

Amo tanto está historia 🥹💖

[Danny_reads]

Plot-wise, things are definitely picking up. Sadly, the plot is just so generic that it not really keeping my attention. The romance is the only thing that's driving me at this point - I like that we're seeing the love interest starting to fall for our MC, but he can be a bit over-bearing at times.

[Lucille]

3,5/5

J’aime vraiment bien mais c’est surtout que pour un isekai je suis pour une fois intéressée par l’histoire et les perso sont mimi MAIS je trouve toujours très chelou cette façon -18 de soigner une maladie magique :’)

[Kikie]

We finally reached the expedition arc! Shiraishi finally realizes the harsh reality and dangers of the world she now lives in.

The plot definitely picks up here, especially with Seiichirou and Aresh growing so much closer 😆

[CJ - It's only a Paper Moon]

Everyone gets super aggressive for no reason.

[Taya]

I love how Kondou is gaining confidence and acting like a boss. Love that for him.

[Yackie]

Moe, Moe, Moe, anyways, what’s this guy up to????

[Jannika]

4,5 ⭐️

[Paola]

Yeah this is some good storyline

[Vanna Book-Mage]

Oh my days. Kondou isn’t learning. Aresh gets more overprotective. The prince & royal family are AHs. This premise for healing and such is kinda wild.

[Jacquie Stewart]

I love this series. That's all

[Georgia]

9/10

[hea booktubes]

Your honor, I LOVE THEM.